Leticia

No es "La tish ah" como la familia Addams.  Es "Lay tis ee ah."  Leticia es mi maestra de espanol para personas de escuela.

Whew!  That was exhausting.

Let me say this is another one of those posts that comes with a warning.  If you have problems with bilingual public education, immigration, etc....keep on moving.  Totally respect your right to an opinion, just not feeling it.  Sorry.  Still with me?  Okey dokey smokey.  Here we go!

I am at a bilingual school.  Half the day is taught in English and the other half in either Spanish or French.  Most of the teachers are bilingual.  No hablo espanol mucho.  You can probably figure out that it's a problema if the language impaired child you are working with does not speak the same language as you.  It is also difficult to build relationships and gain the confidence of families when they have no idea what you are saying.  What I like most about being a speech therapist is that I have the opportunity to work with students in such small groups that I get to know a lot about them.  When I came to this building, I knew that I needed to learn at least some Spanish if I wanted to do the kind of job I like to do.  I am very fortunate that my district has wonderful opportunities for a variety of continuing education courses.  One of them is an 18 hour Spanish for school personnel class.  It's not going to make me bilingual, but I'm on week four and here is what it has done for me. (Almost feel like I should say "Hooked on Spanglish worked for me!")

I am required to have at least one meeting a year with the parents of my students.  These parents work at least one job, sometimes two.  They do not necessarily have one car, let alone two.  Many are wage workers.  If they take off work, they don't get paid.  When there is a meeting, they come.  Anybody who works in a school knows what a big deal that is.  If you don't work in a school, just take my word for it.  These are interested parents.  When people sacrifice so much and show such appreciation for their child's education, I hate not being able to call them myself to set the appointments.  When I work with one of their kids, I hate feeling like I'm not able to really understand what they do or don't know.

I have completed four of my Spanish classes.  They are so way worth it!

First of all, we don't just learn words and phrases.  We learn about the Spanish language in general and how it compares to English.  We also learn about culture.  This has already been very helpful for me because I could think of several children who were not making certain sounds in English.  Now I know they don't make them because they are unfamiliar with them.  They don't need therapy, just a little more time.  The cultural and language information has already changed how I write reports and explain things to families.  It is also helpful in thinking about how to approach early intervention and response to intervention (RtI.)  

This morning, I observed a little guy who doesn't know a stitch of English yet.  His worksheet was pluralizing nouns ending in y.  I was able to guide him in Spanish about how we change the y to an ie and then add s.  Being able to explain it in Spanish gave me the opportunity to see that he is capable of picking things up very quickly with minimal assistance.  Hola receptive language, so happy to see you!

That little exchange went so well, I decided to try a bigger challenge.

I needed to set up a meeting with a family with one bilingual parent and one who only speaks Spanish.  I could have just taken the easy way out by calling the English speaking parent.  The ELL coordinator also offered to call for me.  I said "No!"  I was going to try it myself.  I had already developed a relationship with the family, so they know all about my Dora the Explorer abilities.  I knew if I screwed up, they would be very nice about it.  I called the cell for the Spanish speaking parent and said my name, title, where I was calling from, why I was calling, the date and time I wanted to have the meeting and that the teachers would be there too. I called the other parent afterwards just to make sure I said it right.  Guess what?  I did! Yeah me!!!

The day ended with conferences.  Those earlier successes built my confidence enough that I started speaking broken Spanish and spanglish to anyone who was unfortunate enough to cross my path.  Loved it.

Like I said, this class is 18 hours outside of the school day.  It required me to find additional childcare.  Leticia, thanks for making it all worthwhile.